by Otto Schafer
Sylanth staggered, the dragon fire dissipating as he gasped in short, pained breaths.
Garrett stole the opportunity, diving into a reckless roll between the dragon’s front legs. Then, springing upward he swung for the throat attached to the remaining head. Garrett’s sword found the beast, but with his blood-slicked hands, he couldn’t get a solid strike like with the first head. Still, the sword bit down, slicing the dragon’s throat.
With its last gargled breath, Sylanth found Garrett, his eyes boring into him. The ill wishes in the dragon’s eyes were too little too late – he would have no revenge.
Garrett never broke eye contact with the dragon, holding his stare until the head rested on the floor and the last of his life faded. Garrett wanted Sylanth to know who had destroyed them. It was the least he could do for Janis.
As Apep pulled himself back to his feet he gingerly touched his broken nose. He wanted to heal himself and stop the pain the Moore boy had inflicted on his face, but there was no time, not when he was so close. Wiping his sleeve across his bleeding nose, he turned to Balor. “If you agree to keep our truce and take me to King Ogliosh I give my word that our treaty will be upheld when I sit on the throne of Osonian. The others will all be awake now, Balor. By waking one, I have woken all seven of you!”
“Yes, I can feel the others. All have risen. All will converge on King Ogliosh. We must go to him,” Balor said.
“Yes. But first show me how to assemble the stones. This world is different now, Balor. They have new weapons, new… energy. If I assemble the God Stones into the Sound Eye, their world will change. Their energy won’t work.”
Balor stood looking down at Apep, hesitating – perhaps contemplating whether to trust the elvish wizard. “It is dangerous to assemble the Sound Eye before the portal’s conductor is ready. This world is not meant for such power.”
“Balor! You must trust me. If the humans’ power isn’t nullified, we will be in for a battle. We did this your way last time! I waited a thousand years for my army and look where it got us! The world is different now. We have to assemble them! Show me!”
Balor stared down, his one big eye unblinking. Finally, he held out his hand. “Give them to me and I will assembly them.”
Now it was Apep who faltered.
Across the chamber, Pete stood under his own power, tears still streaming down his face, as Garrett ran toward them.
Garrett stood in front of him. “I’m sorry, Pete.”
Pete threw his arms around Garrett and hugged him, and Lenny and David piled on. The moment was broken when they heard Breanne scream.
“That’s Bre!” Garrett said, water splashing over his feet as he turned toward Breanne’s voice.
“Yeah, and she’s yelling for me! Oh, this can’t be good!” David said.
“Come on!” Garrett said, splashing forward.
The others followed.
Pete wiped tears from his face and squinted in the direction of Breanne’s screams. “That water isn’t good. It can only be coming from one place.”
Lenny frowned. “We can’t be anywhere close to the Sangamon?”
“Not the Sangamon, Lenny. We must be under Lake Petersburg,” Pete said.
The three boys ran across the back of the chamber and around to the opposite side of the slab. Apep was atop the slab, speaking to the giant. As they rounded the slab, they found Breanne kneeling next to Paul.
“Jesus, what happened?” Lenny asked.
“Please, David. Please help him,” Breanne begged.
“I’ll try,” David said, kneeling next to her.
“Garrett… come… come here,” Paul managed through clenched teeth.
Garrett knelt down.
Paul reached up, grabbing his collar.
David placed his hands on Paul’s chest and closed his eyes.
Paul pulled Garrett close, whispering in his ear, “Take care… of… her… Garrett.”
“No, Paul! Get up! Please just get up!” Breanne begged.
Garrett’s throat constricted – he could only nod.
David started to glow.
Apep looked down on them from atop the slab.
Breanne sobbed. She looked up, her eyes finding Apep’s. “It isn’t going to work. He isn’t going to let it work!”
“Shall I finish them?” Balor asked, turning to the group crowded around Paul.
“No… leave them, they’re all about to die anyway.” Then he motioned with his hand, “Eshesh esh zaeray!”
“No! Leave him alone!” Breanne screamed. But it was too late – the words were spoken. Reflexively Paul’s body arched, forcing his back off the floor as his whole body seized. Finally, his muscles relaxed, and his body went limp.
Paul’s heart stopped beating.
“Oh god, no! Please! Please, Paul, no!” Breanne screamed.
David’s glow faded away prematurely. The mustached boy swayed, but he didn’t pass out. He refocused and tried again, but the golden glow wouldn’t come. He turned to Breanne with tear-filled eyes. “I’m so sorry, Breanne.”
But Breanne was somewhere else. Pulled away to a place deep in her own mind – deep into her past. Her mother was telling her not to worry. It was going to be okay. They would just go back and get her violin, and if they were late for the Christmas recital at all, it would only be a few minutes. But Breanne wasn’t having it. She was arguing about how embarrassed she would be showing up late in front of all her friends and that she couldn’t believe her mother had let her forget her violin. They probably wouldn’t even let her play. She was so mad, and all she could think was she would never forgive her mother for forgetting her violin. And so, her mother drove faster. On the radio “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” played. In her mind she replayed the moment, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at her mother, I’ll never forgive you for this! Never! The words came hot and fast – and more words too! And, oh god, how she didn’t mean them! She wanted so bad to take them back!
Outside her mind was shouting that she couldn’t hear.
“Bre! Get away from him!” Garrett shouted.
“Bre, run!” David shouted.
She also couldn’t hear Lenny beating his fists on Paul’s chest and shouting, “You can’t die! You can’t die!” over and over. “I owe you a knife! How can I give you your damn knife if you die!” She wouldn’t know part of Lenny’s strange stepparent’s training had required he learn several first aid techniques, including CPR. She wouldn’t see Lenny begin giving her brother chest compressions. She wouldn’t hear him counting off, “One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand!”
No, Breanne’s world was now consumed with a shattering windshield, crushing metal, and the sound of her own heart as it broke. She couldn’t even feel the ribbons of shadow as they wrapped around her arms like cold, dead fingers. Reality was more like a dream as she became weightless, drawn up onto the slab, where she was dropped at the feet of Apep only to be snatched up again. This time the fingers that wrapped around her arm were very real – yet still, she barely noticed.
Garrett stood, pointed his sword, then started toward Apep. “You’re going to die, Apep!”
Apep smiled from atop the stone slab, “In the words of your dead friend, ‘Not today.’”
Apep turned and said something to the giant.
Balor took two strides forward and kicked the wall near the fracture.
The wall split open, pouring more water into the chamber.
Behind Garrett, Paul gasped for breath.
“He’s aliv—” Lenny tried to shout, but the sudden gush surged into the kids, knocking them over and washing them across the chamber.
Lenny scrambled for Paul, grabbing him by the collar. “We have to get out of here or we’re all going to drown.”
“But he has Bre! I won’t leave her!” Garrett argued, as he began wading against the current back toward Apep.
Paul’s face was full of confusion as he tried to speak in what sounded t
o the boys like a drunken slur. “Oh… my god… It’s Oak Island all over… but now I’m Ed… now…”
Apep glared down at Garrett, a condescending smile on his face. He handed the God Stones to Balor.
Balor turned his back to them, not allowing anyone to see him assemble the stones.
“He’s connecting them!” Garrett shouted, his eyes going wide as he pushed forward against the rising current.
“Goddammit, Garrett! We have to go now!” Lenny said, pushing David to go as he dragged Paul through the shallow water toward the entrance to the chamber.
Garrett waved a hand. “Go, Lenny, get them out. I have to stop them!”
But Garrett couldn’t stop Balor, who had just one movement left to complete the assembly of the God Stones into the Sound Eye.
With a single, unremarkable click, the entire world changed.
In that instant, intense energy spilled forth, spreading like a shock wave, permeating everything – saturating the world.
36
End Game
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
Garrett could feel the increase of power, the supreme energy. It was thick in the air, pulsing in everything around him – amazing and ominous at the same time. Mr. B’s story of the great flood came rushing back to him. The last time the earth was exposed to the Sound Eye, it was used to tear open a hole in the fabric of space, nearly destroying the world in the process.
Balor looked down at Apep, who was shouting at the giant and holding out his hand. The giant said something with unflinching finality. He did not give the Sound Eye back to Apep.
The next words Garrett understood as they were in English.
“After what I went through to wake you! You would dare to betray me?!” Then came the words of power, “Rayesh ak eshmue, Esh akoz oz flahmue!”
Balor turned on Apep, hammering his big fist downward to try and crush the elf before he could cast. But Apep was too fast, lurching out of the way and nearly yanking Breanne’s arm out of its socket in the process.
The spell hit Balor, freezing the water around his feet. Garrett saw it, but the giant didn’t realize it until he tried to take a step. He fell forward off balance, instinctively reaching out with his hands…
The Sound Eye dropped onto the slab as Balor flailed, the ice now climbing up his legs.
Garrett waded forward. This was his chance. The giant was trapped. He had to get the Sound Eye before Apep, then he could rescue Bre.
In the tunnel, Paul grabbed Lenny by the arm. “No, Lenny, we can’t… leave without them!”
“Right now, I got to get you out of here! I promised Garrett,” Lenny said, dragging Paul forward through the thigh-deep water.
“And didn’t you promise…” Paul struggled to get the words out. “You promised Mr. B you would take care of him… Lenny, you have to go back and help him save my sister.”
David was holding Lenny’s staff and flailing it wildly. “We’re out of time. If we don’t go now, we won’t make it. That wall is going!” His voice was high and panicked. “And when it does, we’re screwed. I don’t want to drown! Lake Petersburg is over sixty feet deep. I know, I’ve fished it plenty with my dad. Do you even realize how much pressure that is?!”
Paul continued to hold Lenny’s gaze as water rushed past them. Away from the fire-lit chamber, the only light was coming from Paul’s headlamp. Finally, he tried to speak again. “I can’t do it, Lenny. My head is messed up… and my body isn’t working right. I need you. Garrett and Bre need you! Jesus, Lenny, if I lose my sister…” He swallowed before continuing, “You know it’s more though – if we lose Garrett, I think I lose my pops, but I also think the whole world loses.”
Lenny turned to David and Pete. “Get him out of here.”
“What? You’re actually going back?” David said.
“I was always going back, David, but I told Garrett I would get you guys out. Garrett didn’t say out of what. You’re out of the chamber. Now you two take it from here and get him the rest of the way.”
“Going back in there is suicide for sure,” David shouted. “But fine! If that’s how you want it, Lenny, just… Fine!”
Lenny could see David’s mustache twitch in the dim light of Paul’s headlamp.
David spun, shoving the staff into Lenny’s hands. “I should have known I was going to die in this rotten place! Not enough I nearly fell in the river getting in, then almost fell in that death trap of a pit when I was attacked by that disgusting bat! Son of bitch, Lenny! Not enough a rat nearly ate my face!”
“Ate your face—?”
“Shut up!” David shouted. “That’s right! My face! Not enough I stabbed a freaking dragon to save your ass! No!” David pointed at Lenny. “Now, I finally get to leave, and I find out we got to go back in!”
“David, you can wait here until I get—”
“Shut up, Lenny! Just you shut up right now! After what happened to Janis! I got to go back in! Shit’s sake, Lenny, I gotta make sure you don’t die! Make sure Garrett and Bre don’t die!” David turned and started marching back into the chamber. “The truth is we’re probably all going to die in this rotten place, Lenny! So, come on! Let’s go die… you dick!”
Lenny raised both eyebrows and looked at Pete.
“Whatever. Let’s just get this over with,” Pete said, turning to follow David.
Paul handed Lenny his headlamp, then leaned up against the side of the tunnel, bracing himself against the rising water. “Just get them out, Lenny. Just get them out.”
The Sound Eye was much closer to Apep than it was to Garrett but in a split-second decision Garrett launched himself headfirst, hoping against hope he could close the gap by making the first move.
Apep released his grip on Breanne and lunged, landing hard on his stomach. The lanky elf sprawled across the slab, frantically trying to grab the Sound Eye before it slid off.
Garrett scrambled on his belly too, stretching out only inches away. He was almost there when long blue-grey fingers filled his vision and a sharp elbow collided with his eye.
Apep quickly scooped up the Sound Eye with both hands. He stood, raising the round object high above his head triumphantly. Then he began laughing, like a child who had just been given a ticket to an amusement park. His laughter quickly turned into a different sound full of gluttonous avidity, the sound of unbearable thirst being quenched. “Ah! Finally, it’s mine!”
“Bre! Run!” Garrett shouted. But she didn’t run. She didn’t move. What the hell was wrong with her? Apep stood between them, still goggling the Sound Eye, still laughing. Garrett felt like he had been gut punched, but it was the sound of fracturing ice that startled him from his misery. The giant was nearly free of the ice spell.
Apep spun.
Balor smashed frantically at his one remaining foot still frozen in place.
“Garrett!” came a rasping voice from behind him.
Garrett turned, looking for the source of the voice.
Down on the chamber floor, propped against one of the columns Janis had conjured, was Coach. He was somehow still alive! But only barely, his blue skin an ashen grey in the firelight.
“Garrett, run! Run now!” Syldan ordered.
“But, Coach! Apep has the stones and Bre!”
Apep had taken Breanne by the upper arm and was backing away toward the opposite end of the slab, closer to the source of the water.
“Goddammit, brick, you got no time. Get out of here before you can’t!”
“But… the old one, Apep. We can’t let them escape! I have to stop them.”
“Listen to me. You did exactly what you were supposed to do. You came in the tomb and Apep is leaving with the stones. I’m trying to save you from the next part! The next part will be the worst of it! But maybe… if you just go!”
He isn’t making any damn sense, Garrett thought.
From the opening to the chamber the light from a headlamp bounced toward him.
It was Lenny, David, and Pete.
“What the hell are you guys doing back?” Garrett asked, glancing back to see Apep tugging Bre along. She wasn’t even resisting. He must have her in some kind of trance, Garrett thought.
“Coach?” Lenny asked in surprise.
“Lenny, you were supposed to get them out!” Garrett said, wading away from them and toward the slab.
“We’re not leaving without you!” Lenny said.
“And I’m not leaving without her!” Garrett said.
With a final grunt the last of the ice holding Balor shattered, freeing the giant’s foot from its frozen shackle.
“You guys, figure this shit out, would you? I got Coach!” David shouted as he grabbed Coach by the wrist and started pulling.
“Dammit, brick, get your head on straight! You can’t save me, there’s no time and there’s no point! Just go,” the elvish coach protested as he tried unsuccessfully to pull his arm back.
David continued to slosh forward, ignoring the strange pointy-eared elf barking at him like a drill sergeant.
As Syldan’s body stretched out, he made a horrible groan then muttered, “Jesus H. Christ,” and passed out.
“What’s the move, Garrett?” Lenny said.
Apep began chanting at the wall. He held the round Sound Eye out in front, and it began to glow.
“The giant’s loose and he looks pissed!” Garrett pointed at Balor.
“I bet he goes after Apep!” Lenny shouted back.
Garrett nodded. “Yeah, and when he does you grab Bre, I’ll grab the Sound Eye, and we bail.”
But Balor didn’t attack Apep. Instead he turned toward them and ran like hell toward the exit – the exit that was on the other side of Garrett and Lenny. The space between the slab and the wall wasn’t necessarily narrow, but with a thirty-foot giant running toward him it seemed to close in really quick.
